Beginning BPAL
I've gotten a lot of requests for something like this, so here it is: all the advice I'd give a beginner thinking of jumping headfirst into the incredibly addictive hobby of perfume collecting. I've set it down here for my reference, your reference, and everyone else's reference, so feel free to direct other folks here if you see the need.
This is a work in progress, subject to change, will be updated from time to time, yadda yadda.
Choosing Scents
Unless you have no sense of smell, in which case I doubt you're worrying about this very much, you can probably think of a set of smells you very much love, like spices, food, florals, or incense. Start with what you know pleases you and work out from there.
Choose your starter scents based on ingredients you know you enjoy the smell of, even if you don't know what they'd smell like on you. You can pick scents whose ingredients you are totally familiar with, or ones that only contain one thing you recognize. Either way is good. I suggest choosing scents that have a mix of familiar and unfamiliar notes.
Unless you just don't like the smell of something period, do not discount using it as a perfume. I didn't think I'd enjoy smelling like food, but I do. Yet I don't enjoy scents that are strongly citric, because I don't like those smells even when they aren't on me.
Go through the Lab's website and make a wishlist of what you want to try. You'll want one written down eventually anyway, once you start swapping. Start with a list of notes you like, and find some scents that contain those notes. You can use the search feature to find scents with certain ingredients, or just browse. The search feature hasn't been updated with the most recent scents, but it's still a handy tool. Get the hang of it.
Cruise the bpal.org reviews forum and read up on your potential purchases. This is the single most helpful method for the rank (haha) amateur to get a feel for what something is likely to smell like.
If you can swing it, I suggest an initial purchase of around 18 imps. Nobody knows for sure what they like until they've tried quite a few scents. About 20, and you have a good yardstick to go by. Even if none of the first batch grab you, try to stick with it.
If you think an ingredient isn't working on you, try that same perfume again later. Body chemistry changes, especially for women during cyclical hormone fluctuations. Avoid things you know don't work on you, yes, but never give up on an ingredient completely. Even if nine out of ten blends that feature a certain note do badly on you, eventually you will run across one that works. Generally, if you can wear most of the notes in a perfume, odds are good that it'll be at least okay on you. I try to order at least three "maybe" scents with each batch, just so I get a little variety. I've found some great scents this way.
Also keep in mind that you can't go on what you smell in the bottle -- ever. Body heat very quickly alters the way perfume smells. Base notes and more subtle middle notes like incense just don't show up until they have warmth to separate them. Body heat and chemistry also alter top notes, especially florals. I love most florals in the bottle, but on my they turn to baby powder or used stripper makeup sponges. On the other hand, chocolate smells horrible in the bottle, but lovely on my skin.
Heavier scents that have leather or chocolate or lots of smoke (a la Iago, Kali, and Brimstone), or very musky/animal scents, really need to breathe for a couple of minutes because the initial wet phase can be overwhelming. I hated Gomorrah until it dried, and then it was utterly fantastic. Same with Cerberus and Uruk. Unless it's giving you an allergic reaction or a headache, try not to wash it off until it's had a chance to do its thing.
Recommendations:
My basic recommendations for good starter scents (all of these are part of the permanent roster of BPAL scents) are as follows:
Dorian: musk, vanilla, tea, and lemon. Sweet and yummy. A hit with virtually everyone.
O: Amber, honey, and vanilla. A classic, and for a good reason.
Aglaea: amber, musk, peach, and a little myrtle. I cannot get enough of this one. It's just the right mix of warm and bright.
Fae: musk, peach, bergamot (orangey citrus), florals. Aglaea's cousin, so this is an either/or thing. Also beautiful. The BPAL peach note is incomparable. Obviously if you don't want to smell like peaches, back away slowly.
Black Phoenix: the Lab's eponymous scent is indescribable; warm, sweet almond, a little sugar, incense, spice, and a faint whiff of citrus. Amazing.
Snake Oil: a mix of indonesian oils with vanilla and some spice; probably the Lab's most popular scent. Smells quite different once it's been "aged."
Scherezade: musk and spices. If you can do musk, do this. It's an amazing scent with both depth and charm.
Morocco: musk, spices, and incense. This one and Scherezade are in the same category, but they go about it differently. I love them both. Scherezade is sexier, Morocco is more exotic and refined.
Tintagel: This is the best holiday scent ever. Wine, spices, a little leather . . . in my top 5. And it'll tell you whether you can or can't wear the wine note, which is one that a lot of people have trouble with. Give it a few minutes to settle before you decide what you think.
Blood Kiss: honey, spices, cherry, musk, and a little wine. Utterly decadent, if a bit heavy. I'm so sorry I didn't try this one earlier.
Seraglio: roses, almonds, incense, and a little citrus. Lush and sexy. Note: almond perfume smells a lot like cherries while it's wet.
Kali: do not judge her by the smell in the bottle. Chocolate, flowers, wine, and incense. And it works. She's intense, but rewarding. Try her if you're feeling very brave.
Bastet: musk, myrrh, and spices. A huge hit with almost everyone and justifiably one of the most popular scents. Most people can wear this one with no trouble at all.
Harlot: three roses and cinnamon. If you like roses, it's worth a shot.
Rapture: rose, jasmine, myrrh, and musk. YUM.
Hollywood Babylon: a little bit of everything . . . musk, sweet strawberry/cherry, vanilla, amber, and heliotrope. Actually really works despite being a hodgepodge.
Skuld: golden with honey, musk, and shimmering florals, a beautiful scent that ought to be more popular than it is. This is one with the potential to work for a lot of people.
De Sade: everyone deserves to know if the leather note speaks to them. And for leather, De Sade and Iago are the ones to beat. Err. Well, maybe the other way around. (Wanda and Loviatar are first rate strongly leather feminine scents, but I prefer my leather straight-up.)
Phantom Queen and Aeval both defy classification for me, but they're wonderful scents, not too heavy on any one thing. Check out the descriptions. Phantom Queen is more wet and rainy, heathery. Aeval is more sweet-pea floral. Both are great, and they get overlooked a lot in favor of scents with sexier names. Oh, and Peitho, too. Great scent, bad PR.
Florals: I'm bad with florals, which all smell pretty much the same to me, but Hades, Fallen, Goneril, and Zorya were all tolerable even on me. I adored Twilight.
Roses: I consider rose scents in a class of their own, and would recommend Zombi for a dark, dirty rose, Lucy's Kiss for a light, soapy rose, 2, 5, & 7 for sheer rose-verdose, and Spellbound for an overpoweringly sexual musky rose. Black Rose and Blood Rose are both beautiful as well. Othello is incomparable.
Scents for Guys:
A lot of BPAL scents are gender-neutral, meaning guys could wear them without too much trouble. Some are formulated specifically for men.
The advanced search feature on the Black Phoenix website allows you to restrict search results to traditionally masculine scents, and I suggest you use this feature.
The Black Phoenix site also offers a (rather outdated but still useful) listing of masculine/gender-neutral scents on their FAQ page. Check it out.
Good advice can also be found on the bpal.org forums.
Of the masculine scents I have tried, I'll point out that Villain, Wilde, Highwayman, De Sade, Dracul, Brimstone, Iago, Antony, Hellfire, Fenris Wolf, Lysander, and Satyr are all good. There's always Golden Priapus, if you don't mind answering "What are you wearing?" honestly.
Other scents are popular with both sexes. Snake Oil and Dorian would be two of these. Incense and woody blends, such as Magus and Penitence, or salty and aquatic blends like Port Royal and Jolly Roger also work well.
It takes a special, gutsy fellow to wear something that is sweet yet masculine, like Tezcatlipoca or Bloodlust, but these less traditional scents are very, very appealing nevertheless.
Ordering:
You can start by ordering straight from the Lab, or by going through other fans. You get a better selection if you pick stuff straight from the Lab rather than hunting through other addicts' castoffs for what you want. On the other hand, buying from other perfume lovers is cheaper, the imps arrive faster without Lab turnaround, and it's a great way to build up a network of people to trade with. I prefer ordering from the Lab if the scent is still available, and trading for discontinued or LE scents. Your money, your conscience.
Livejournal is full of BPAL communities where you can purchase from someone looking to unload the scents that didn't work on them. Most communities are very helpful, and a lot of BPAL fans enjoy helping out newbies. The BPAL forum itself, www.bpal.org, is a good place for this as well, with the added bonus that it's policed; people who charge too much or do not in fact fulfill their end of a swap (called swaplifting) are booted out. This sort of thing isn't that common, but you should beware. Always check a person's feedback, and be sure to leave feedback as well.
Also keep in mind that eBay is a great place to get starter imp packs from people looking to unload a big batch at once. Again, watch feedback. Caveat emptor.
General Catalog scents:
The Lab's basic stock is available in tiny sample vials, called imp's ears or imps, and in 5 ml bottles. They used to offer general catalog ("GC") scents in 10 ml bottles, but these were discontinued in mid-2006. I have no idea how many GC scents there are. Hundreds. More are released every year.
GC scents are a permanent part of the stock. Sometimes they get retired due to scarcity of ingredients, or perhaps simple lack of demand. Sometimes the ingredients are adjusted slightly, and these reformulations are noted in the descriptions.
Some of the GC is not available as individual imps; the Salon, the Chakra, Gaiman, Good Omens, and Panacea blends, for example, are available only as full bottles, or in some cases as whole sets of imps. Read the category descriptions at the top of the page carefully.
Lunacy and Limited Editions:
The Lab always has some limited edition oils available. The Lunacy oils are released once a month on the full moon. Each has a different name. They don't always repeat from year to year, and even when the name is the same, the scent itself is a different formulation. The other limited editions are often seasonal, and some do recur from year to year. Occasionally, a scent that was a limited edition will be introduced into the general catalog.
Lots of people sell imps of limited edition oils so that you can try them. Homemade imps are called decants. Fan-run decant circles allow you to pay up-front for samples of limited edition scents. The big bottles are shipped to the person running the circle, who decants the oil into little vials and then sends it on to you. This is a great way to get hold of limited editions before they go out of stock; most people want to try before they buy, and this is how a lot of them, self included, manage it.
Decant circles are most active just after an update, and it can be hard or impossible to find one for an update near the end of its cycle.
However.
My advice to newbies about limited editions and lunacy blends is: don't.
Don't worry about it at first. It's not that it isn't worth it, it is; but when you start out, you need to focus on developing a feel for what you like. The most efficient, least expensive, least frustrating to do this is through the general catalog scents.
This way you will avoid the heartbreak of finding what you think is the perfect scent only to learn it's an LE; or the opposite, of buying a bottle of something untried and discovering that it doesn't work on you. Both of those things happen to everyone, but they're more likely to happen before you are acquainted with your preferences, tolerances, and the general behavior of notes.
Your mileage might vary, of course; plenty of people leaped right into the LE blends. I did, and I'm still standing here telling you not to do it, so there you go.
Twilight Alchemy Lab
This is the practical magic arm of the Lab. Here you will find aromatherapy blends that have been carefully formulated for use in ritual or aromatherapeutic work. Most are not meant for use as perfumes, though many can double. They are not sold as imps. Decant circles, again, are one way to try these. Partial bottles aren't that hard to come by in swaps. Good karma to those who suck it up and buy full bottles.
Black Phoenix Trading Post
Here is where you get your BPAL swag. Tee shirts, aprons, pants, scent lockets, imp cases, bath bombs, soap and more are available through the Trading Post. The Trading Post produces a limited edition tee each month for release with that month's Lunacy blend, as well as offering a nice selection of general merchandise. Everything they produce is of high quality.
Their links section, too, is a source of great offbeat stuff. Go have a browse.
Links:
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
Black Phoenix Trading Post
Twilight Alchemy Lab
The forums at BPAL.org. Yes, register. It's a better place to ask questions than here. Tons of people, all with time to reply. Go!
The Lab search engine. Learn to use it, because it's very helpful to the beginner.
The Scent Scribbles Wiki, which allows you to quickly pull up scent descriptions and links to BPAL.org reviews, cross-reference scents by notes or category, and otherwise snag any information you need. A fantastic resource.
What does that smell like? A very helpful thread on the BPAL.org forums that describes some common notes. Must be logged in to access. Which means you have to register, naturally.
Perfume ingredients by category, with short descriptions of each one. A non-BPAL site, but nonetheless very helpful and informative. Doesn't list all scents, but you can always try Wikipedia.
Right Here on LJ:
BPAL Ex Cathedra, for official Lab news. Friend this one, even if you don't friend any others. This'll give you news on updates.
BPAL newbie FAQ. Exhaustive, and highly recommended reading.
Sin and Salvation. The "unofficially official" BPAL fan community. Very friendly folks, posting a mix of general chatter and sale/swap related posts.
BPAL Anonymous. All fandom, no sales. A wonderful community full of wonderful people, all ready to squeal happily with you, answer questions, and commiserate.
TAL Reports, for reviews and tests of Twilight Alchemy Lab oils.
BPAL Feedback, because what you don't know about someone can hurt you.
The Icon Lab. Because we all need LJ icons.
Filthy Materialism:
BPAL Marketplace for sales.
BPAL Swaps, for swaps.
BPAL ISOs, for those pesky ISO (In Search Of) moments.
BPAL Decants, for decant circles. A must if you plan on getting into LE decants.
BPAL.org Wishlists, on the forum. Must be registered. Posting your own wishlist where you can easily find it and link others to it is a good idea. So is updating it.
BPAL Wishlists, on LJ, another place to post your wishlist so you can link back to it.
And I think that just about does it. If your questions are more complicated than that, it's probably best to take it to a comm or the forum, where you can get a variety of answers. (No, sorry, I don't do personalized recommendations. Seriously. The forum. I wish I had time, but I don't, and those folks are way better at it than I will ever be.)
Hope that was helpful! Happy sniffing!
This is a work in progress, subject to change, will be updated from time to time, yadda yadda.
Choosing Scents
Unless you have no sense of smell, in which case I doubt you're worrying about this very much, you can probably think of a set of smells you very much love, like spices, food, florals, or incense. Start with what you know pleases you and work out from there.
Choose your starter scents based on ingredients you know you enjoy the smell of, even if you don't know what they'd smell like on you. You can pick scents whose ingredients you are totally familiar with, or ones that only contain one thing you recognize. Either way is good. I suggest choosing scents that have a mix of familiar and unfamiliar notes.
Unless you just don't like the smell of something period, do not discount using it as a perfume. I didn't think I'd enjoy smelling like food, but I do. Yet I don't enjoy scents that are strongly citric, because I don't like those smells even when they aren't on me.
Go through the Lab's website and make a wishlist of what you want to try. You'll want one written down eventually anyway, once you start swapping. Start with a list of notes you like, and find some scents that contain those notes. You can use the search feature to find scents with certain ingredients, or just browse. The search feature hasn't been updated with the most recent scents, but it's still a handy tool. Get the hang of it.
Cruise the bpal.org reviews forum and read up on your potential purchases. This is the single most helpful method for the rank (haha) amateur to get a feel for what something is likely to smell like.
If you can swing it, I suggest an initial purchase of around 18 imps. Nobody knows for sure what they like until they've tried quite a few scents. About 20, and you have a good yardstick to go by. Even if none of the first batch grab you, try to stick with it.
If you think an ingredient isn't working on you, try that same perfume again later. Body chemistry changes, especially for women during cyclical hormone fluctuations. Avoid things you know don't work on you, yes, but never give up on an ingredient completely. Even if nine out of ten blends that feature a certain note do badly on you, eventually you will run across one that works. Generally, if you can wear most of the notes in a perfume, odds are good that it'll be at least okay on you. I try to order at least three "maybe" scents with each batch, just so I get a little variety. I've found some great scents this way.
Also keep in mind that you can't go on what you smell in the bottle -- ever. Body heat very quickly alters the way perfume smells. Base notes and more subtle middle notes like incense just don't show up until they have warmth to separate them. Body heat and chemistry also alter top notes, especially florals. I love most florals in the bottle, but on my they turn to baby powder or used stripper makeup sponges. On the other hand, chocolate smells horrible in the bottle, but lovely on my skin.
Heavier scents that have leather or chocolate or lots of smoke (a la Iago, Kali, and Brimstone), or very musky/animal scents, really need to breathe for a couple of minutes because the initial wet phase can be overwhelming. I hated Gomorrah until it dried, and then it was utterly fantastic. Same with Cerberus and Uruk. Unless it's giving you an allergic reaction or a headache, try not to wash it off until it's had a chance to do its thing.
Recommendations:
My basic recommendations for good starter scents (all of these are part of the permanent roster of BPAL scents) are as follows:
Dorian: musk, vanilla, tea, and lemon. Sweet and yummy. A hit with virtually everyone.
O: Amber, honey, and vanilla. A classic, and for a good reason.
Aglaea: amber, musk, peach, and a little myrtle. I cannot get enough of this one. It's just the right mix of warm and bright.
Fae: musk, peach, bergamot (orangey citrus), florals. Aglaea's cousin, so this is an either/or thing. Also beautiful. The BPAL peach note is incomparable. Obviously if you don't want to smell like peaches, back away slowly.
Black Phoenix: the Lab's eponymous scent is indescribable; warm, sweet almond, a little sugar, incense, spice, and a faint whiff of citrus. Amazing.
Snake Oil: a mix of indonesian oils with vanilla and some spice; probably the Lab's most popular scent. Smells quite different once it's been "aged."
Scherezade: musk and spices. If you can do musk, do this. It's an amazing scent with both depth and charm.
Morocco: musk, spices, and incense. This one and Scherezade are in the same category, but they go about it differently. I love them both. Scherezade is sexier, Morocco is more exotic and refined.
Tintagel: This is the best holiday scent ever. Wine, spices, a little leather . . . in my top 5. And it'll tell you whether you can or can't wear the wine note, which is one that a lot of people have trouble with. Give it a few minutes to settle before you decide what you think.
Blood Kiss: honey, spices, cherry, musk, and a little wine. Utterly decadent, if a bit heavy. I'm so sorry I didn't try this one earlier.
Seraglio: roses, almonds, incense, and a little citrus. Lush and sexy. Note: almond perfume smells a lot like cherries while it's wet.
Kali: do not judge her by the smell in the bottle. Chocolate, flowers, wine, and incense. And it works. She's intense, but rewarding. Try her if you're feeling very brave.
Bastet: musk, myrrh, and spices. A huge hit with almost everyone and justifiably one of the most popular scents. Most people can wear this one with no trouble at all.
Harlot: three roses and cinnamon. If you like roses, it's worth a shot.
Rapture: rose, jasmine, myrrh, and musk. YUM.
Hollywood Babylon: a little bit of everything . . . musk, sweet strawberry/cherry, vanilla, amber, and heliotrope. Actually really works despite being a hodgepodge.
Skuld: golden with honey, musk, and shimmering florals, a beautiful scent that ought to be more popular than it is. This is one with the potential to work for a lot of people.
De Sade: everyone deserves to know if the leather note speaks to them. And for leather, De Sade and Iago are the ones to beat. Err. Well, maybe the other way around. (Wanda and Loviatar are first rate strongly leather feminine scents, but I prefer my leather straight-up.)
Phantom Queen and Aeval both defy classification for me, but they're wonderful scents, not too heavy on any one thing. Check out the descriptions. Phantom Queen is more wet and rainy, heathery. Aeval is more sweet-pea floral. Both are great, and they get overlooked a lot in favor of scents with sexier names. Oh, and Peitho, too. Great scent, bad PR.
Florals: I'm bad with florals, which all smell pretty much the same to me, but Hades, Fallen, Goneril, and Zorya were all tolerable even on me. I adored Twilight.
Roses: I consider rose scents in a class of their own, and would recommend Zombi for a dark, dirty rose, Lucy's Kiss for a light, soapy rose, 2, 5, & 7 for sheer rose-verdose, and Spellbound for an overpoweringly sexual musky rose. Black Rose and Blood Rose are both beautiful as well. Othello is incomparable.
Scents for Guys:
A lot of BPAL scents are gender-neutral, meaning guys could wear them without too much trouble. Some are formulated specifically for men.
The advanced search feature on the Black Phoenix website allows you to restrict search results to traditionally masculine scents, and I suggest you use this feature.
The Black Phoenix site also offers a (rather outdated but still useful) listing of masculine/gender-neutral scents on their FAQ page. Check it out.
Good advice can also be found on the bpal.org forums.
Of the masculine scents I have tried, I'll point out that Villain, Wilde, Highwayman, De Sade, Dracul, Brimstone, Iago, Antony, Hellfire, Fenris Wolf, Lysander, and Satyr are all good. There's always Golden Priapus, if you don't mind answering "What are you wearing?" honestly.
Other scents are popular with both sexes. Snake Oil and Dorian would be two of these. Incense and woody blends, such as Magus and Penitence, or salty and aquatic blends like Port Royal and Jolly Roger also work well.
It takes a special, gutsy fellow to wear something that is sweet yet masculine, like Tezcatlipoca or Bloodlust, but these less traditional scents are very, very appealing nevertheless.
Ordering:
You can start by ordering straight from the Lab, or by going through other fans. You get a better selection if you pick stuff straight from the Lab rather than hunting through other addicts' castoffs for what you want. On the other hand, buying from other perfume lovers is cheaper, the imps arrive faster without Lab turnaround, and it's a great way to build up a network of people to trade with. I prefer ordering from the Lab if the scent is still available, and trading for discontinued or LE scents. Your money, your conscience.
Livejournal is full of BPAL communities where you can purchase from someone looking to unload the scents that didn't work on them. Most communities are very helpful, and a lot of BPAL fans enjoy helping out newbies. The BPAL forum itself, www.bpal.org, is a good place for this as well, with the added bonus that it's policed; people who charge too much or do not in fact fulfill their end of a swap (called swaplifting) are booted out. This sort of thing isn't that common, but you should beware. Always check a person's feedback, and be sure to leave feedback as well.
Also keep in mind that eBay is a great place to get starter imp packs from people looking to unload a big batch at once. Again, watch feedback. Caveat emptor.
General Catalog scents:
The Lab's basic stock is available in tiny sample vials, called imp's ears or imps, and in 5 ml bottles. They used to offer general catalog ("GC") scents in 10 ml bottles, but these were discontinued in mid-2006. I have no idea how many GC scents there are. Hundreds. More are released every year.
GC scents are a permanent part of the stock. Sometimes they get retired due to scarcity of ingredients, or perhaps simple lack of demand. Sometimes the ingredients are adjusted slightly, and these reformulations are noted in the descriptions.
Some of the GC is not available as individual imps; the Salon, the Chakra, Gaiman, Good Omens, and Panacea blends, for example, are available only as full bottles, or in some cases as whole sets of imps. Read the category descriptions at the top of the page carefully.
Lunacy and Limited Editions:
The Lab always has some limited edition oils available. The Lunacy oils are released once a month on the full moon. Each has a different name. They don't always repeat from year to year, and even when the name is the same, the scent itself is a different formulation. The other limited editions are often seasonal, and some do recur from year to year. Occasionally, a scent that was a limited edition will be introduced into the general catalog.
Lots of people sell imps of limited edition oils so that you can try them. Homemade imps are called decants. Fan-run decant circles allow you to pay up-front for samples of limited edition scents. The big bottles are shipped to the person running the circle, who decants the oil into little vials and then sends it on to you. This is a great way to get hold of limited editions before they go out of stock; most people want to try before they buy, and this is how a lot of them, self included, manage it.
Decant circles are most active just after an update, and it can be hard or impossible to find one for an update near the end of its cycle.
However.
My advice to newbies about limited editions and lunacy blends is: don't.
Don't worry about it at first. It's not that it isn't worth it, it is; but when you start out, you need to focus on developing a feel for what you like. The most efficient, least expensive, least frustrating to do this is through the general catalog scents.
This way you will avoid the heartbreak of finding what you think is the perfect scent only to learn it's an LE; or the opposite, of buying a bottle of something untried and discovering that it doesn't work on you. Both of those things happen to everyone, but they're more likely to happen before you are acquainted with your preferences, tolerances, and the general behavior of notes.
Your mileage might vary, of course; plenty of people leaped right into the LE blends. I did, and I'm still standing here telling you not to do it, so there you go.
Twilight Alchemy Lab
This is the practical magic arm of the Lab. Here you will find aromatherapy blends that have been carefully formulated for use in ritual or aromatherapeutic work. Most are not meant for use as perfumes, though many can double. They are not sold as imps. Decant circles, again, are one way to try these. Partial bottles aren't that hard to come by in swaps. Good karma to those who suck it up and buy full bottles.
Black Phoenix Trading Post
Here is where you get your BPAL swag. Tee shirts, aprons, pants, scent lockets, imp cases, bath bombs, soap and more are available through the Trading Post. The Trading Post produces a limited edition tee each month for release with that month's Lunacy blend, as well as offering a nice selection of general merchandise. Everything they produce is of high quality.
Their links section, too, is a source of great offbeat stuff. Go have a browse.
Links:
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
Black Phoenix Trading Post
Twilight Alchemy Lab
The forums at BPAL.org. Yes, register. It's a better place to ask questions than here. Tons of people, all with time to reply. Go!
The Lab search engine. Learn to use it, because it's very helpful to the beginner.
The Scent Scribbles Wiki, which allows you to quickly pull up scent descriptions and links to BPAL.org reviews, cross-reference scents by notes or category, and otherwise snag any information you need. A fantastic resource.
What does that smell like? A very helpful thread on the BPAL.org forums that describes some common notes. Must be logged in to access. Which means you have to register, naturally.
Perfume ingredients by category, with short descriptions of each one. A non-BPAL site, but nonetheless very helpful and informative. Doesn't list all scents, but you can always try Wikipedia.
Right Here on LJ:
BPAL Ex Cathedra, for official Lab news. Friend this one, even if you don't friend any others. This'll give you news on updates.
BPAL newbie FAQ. Exhaustive, and highly recommended reading.
Sin and Salvation. The "unofficially official" BPAL fan community. Very friendly folks, posting a mix of general chatter and sale/swap related posts.
BPAL Anonymous. All fandom, no sales. A wonderful community full of wonderful people, all ready to squeal happily with you, answer questions, and commiserate.
TAL Reports, for reviews and tests of Twilight Alchemy Lab oils.
BPAL Feedback, because what you don't know about someone can hurt you.
The Icon Lab. Because we all need LJ icons.
Filthy Materialism:
BPAL Marketplace for sales.
BPAL Swaps, for swaps.
BPAL ISOs, for those pesky ISO (In Search Of) moments.
BPAL Decants, for decant circles. A must if you plan on getting into LE decants.
BPAL.org Wishlists, on the forum. Must be registered. Posting your own wishlist where you can easily find it and link others to it is a good idea. So is updating it.
BPAL Wishlists, on LJ, another place to post your wishlist so you can link back to it.
And I think that just about does it. If your questions are more complicated than that, it's probably best to take it to a comm or the forum, where you can get a variety of answers. (No, sorry, I don't do personalized recommendations. Seriously. The forum. I wish I had time, but I don't, and those folks are way better at it than I will ever be.)
Hope that was helpful! Happy sniffing!